The Conference is designed for the following people:

1.       Businesspeople interested in selling their products to Mexican buyers, importing products from Mexico, and/or becoming a supplier to Mexico’s maquiladora industry. The organizers of the conference will match potential Mexican buyers/sellers with participants in private business-to-business sessions.

2.       Anybody interested in learning the mechanics of doing business with Mexico, Canada, or the U.S. During the event, topical experts will be discussing the various aspects of conducting cross-border business.

3.       Businesspeople wishing to network with counterparts from Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.

Conference Topics:

•Business-to-business sessions:  Meet purchasing managers from Mexico’s maquiladora industry and from local production firms.

•Union Pacific’s $400 million Santa Teresa diesel refueling and intermodal yard project – the biggest project of its kind on the U.S.-Mexico border. Meet and interact with Union Pacific officials.

•The Foxconn project in San Jeronimo (across from the Santa Teresa Port of Entry) – the largest maquiladora in Mexico and the producer of Dell computers.

•Overview of New Mexico and Chihuahua’s cross-border strategies.

•Border security and trade.

•Financing transactions in tough economic times.

•International trade resources for businesses.

•The economic future of the maquiladora industry

Cost:

Conference: $99

Corporate Sponsorship: $1,000 (Includes an exhibition table, space for your banner to be displayed, and admission for five people to the conference.)

Sponsorship: $500 (Includes an exhibition table and admission for two to the conference.)

Banner Sponsorship: $130 (Have your banner displayed at the conference.)

Registration:

To register visit: www.nafta-institute.com/register/

For more information visit: www.nafta-institute.com

Photo courtesy of the International Business Accelerator

By Samantha Roberts

Tuesday, April 5, was a busy day for legislators in Las Cruces, as Economic Development Secretary of New Mexico Jon Barela visited the City of Crosses and Gov. Susana Martinez signed three crucial bills in Santa Teresa.

Barela, who spoke at the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance luncheon, Business on the Border, said he was excited about the future of New Mexico in regards to kick starting new jobs and spending.

Special guests from Union Pacific attended the event, in honor of the new bill Martinez signed later that afternoon that eliminated a tax on diesel fuel in New Mexico and contributed to the arrival of the new Union Pacific plant in Santa Teresa.

“This is a cornerstone to creating jobs in southern New Mexico,” Barela said. “This $400 million project will create 3,000 construction jobs, 600 permanent jobs and many more will stem from that.”

In addition to the diesel tax bill, Martinez also signed the vehicle overweight bill, which Barela touched on during his speech. According to Barela, this bill will spur new job growth and encourage positive trade along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In addition to discussing the bills, including a third bill that will give border authority more power, Barela addressed the audience on key economic principles that he said will keep New Mexico competitive to bring in large corporations, such as Union Pacific.

The first principle is to balance the budget without increasing taxes.

“Although this was a tough session, we did it,” Barela said, adding that New Mexicans can have security in the future of the Land of Enchantment. “We also did it in a bipartisan manner. While Texas, Arizona and California are still dealing with their $1 billion shortfalls, New Mexico is ready for the future.”

The second principle was to establish a competitive regulatory environment, a reason Barela said he established a small business task force.

“We want to make New Mexico more business friendly,” he said, “without compromising people’s health, safety or the environment.”

Third, Barela said he wants to create a competitive tax environment, looking to other states as soft guidelines.

“Arizona has raised the bar,” he said. “Despite their huge debt, they have slashed corporate taxes, income taxes, property taxes, increased funding to job incentive programs and lowered sales tax. They believe the private sector creates jobs, and we need to take that to heart. We can’t ignore what the other states are doing.”

Other principles Barela touched on during his speech, included: a competitive local government structure, a competitive public education environment, increased capital availability and an environment that fosters innovation, an initiative that he said is crucial to the future of New Mexico.

“We are a global environment, and it is important we see it that way,” Barela said. “We need to stay up to speed with global businesses, jobs, etc. The Chinese maybe be able to duplicate things, but they do not have the innovation.”

In addition to his principles, Barela briefly touched on federal issues, specifically the nation’s $14 trillion debt.

“We need to correct the climate in Washington,” he said. “All of the principles can fit together – federal, state and local.”

Following a questions-and-answer session, a majority of the attendees caravanned to Santa Teresa to see Barela’s powerful speech put into effect with the signing of three bills.

Key legislative players who helped getting the bills passed and who also attended the event included Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific’s director of public affairs, Arizona and New Mexico Corporate Relations; Sen. Mary Kay Papen; Rep. Jane Cullbert; Rep. Mary Helen Garcia; Sen. Cynthia Nava; Barela; and, of course, Martinez.

While each bill has weight of its own, together these pieces of legislation marked a monumental day for southern New Mexico.

“We have hit a home run,” Garcia said.

Papen described southern New Mexico as “the stepchild that is often forgotten about,” adding that today would change everything.

“(Senate Bill 179 and House Bill 523 – Locomotive Fuel Tax Gross Receipts Deduction) allows us to compete with Texas,” Martinez said. “We need to be on the same playing field as Texas. They don’t have a tax on locomotive fuel, and, now, we don’t either.”

Martinez also signed House Bill 24, authorizing special permits for the operation of certain overweight commercial vehicles near the southern New Mexico border, and House Bill 322, granting additional powers to the Border Authority.

By Vic Kolenc

SANTA TERESA – With a stroke of a pen, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on Tuesday started the wheels rolling for a proposed $400 million Union Pacific rail facility in Santa Teresa.

Martinez, appearing in a Santa Teresa warehouse filled with politicians and area business people, signed recently passed state legislation exempting Union Pacific from paying locomotive fuel tax so the railroad company will develop the new facility.

The locomotive fueling station and intermodal freight yard are expected to create 3,000 jobs during four years of construction and to bring 600 permanent jobs, Union Pacific officials have said.

Martinez also signed two other pieces of recently passed legislation: one creating a zone around Santa Teresa and Columbus, N.M., for overweight cargo trucks, which economic developers say should attract more industrial distribution centers, and another to create a border infrastructure fund to make it easier for the New Mexico Border Authority to attract private and public funds for international port of entry improvements.

“As activity increases, Santa Teresa will reap benefits for new commercial and industrial development,” Martinez said. “Today, with the signing of these bills, New Mexico has the opportunity to expand on the possibility of growth.”

Former El Paso Mayor Joe Wardy, vice president of strategic development for Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution, an El Paso trucking and warehousing company, said the Union Pacific complex should help the entire area because Union Pacific’s facilities in El Paso are at capacity. “This helps us as a logistics center,” Wardy said.

Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator in Santa Teresa, said, “We’re talking about a project that will change the face of our region and make this the logistical hub of the border.”

Zoe Richmond, director of public affairs for Union Pacific’s Phoenix office, which oversees this area, said the railroad plans to keep its El Paso facilities, including a small intermodal freight yard. But some of its 400 El Paso jobs will eventually be shifted to Santa Teresa, she said. “We had no room to grow. We are land locked in El Paso,” Richmond said.

Union Pacific hopes to begin construction on the 2,200-acre Santa Teresa facility this summer, Richmond said. The company has already begun talking to area educational institutions about work-force development, she said.

This is the third time bills have passed the New Mexico Legislature to bring the Union Pacific facility to Santa Teresa. The project never took off in 2006 because Union Pacific had trouble securing all the land it needed, Richmond said. The project was again ready to be launched in 2008, but the recession killed it, she said.

Everything looks good this time for construction to start this summer, she said. Union Pacific hopes to have the facility open by 2015, Richmond said.

James Robinson III, president of J.H. Rose Logistics, which operates a 65,000-square-foot distribution center in Santa Teresa, said the rail facility should bring more freight traffic into the area. And the overweight truck zone will allow more cargo from Mexico to come into Santa Teresa warehouses, which should help his company and other distribution centers bring in more business, he said.

Pacheco said the overweight truck zone allows trucks to cross from Mexico to Santa Teresa warehouses without heavy loads having to be broken up into several loads as is done today. This can be done at the Santa Teresa port of entry because it has no bridges, which are sensitive to heavy loads, as do other El Paso-area ports, Pacheco said.

Loads of cement or scrap metals that need to be returned from Mexico manufacturing operations to be processed in the United States, are some of the heavy loads that could be processed at Santa Teresa, he said. More finished manufactured goods also could go into the overweight truck zone, he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; (915)546-6421.

By Jerry Pacheco

In my 20 years of working the legislative session to support initiatives related to international trade, I have to say that the 2011 session was the most successful one that I can remember. The following are bills that passed the 2011 New Mexico legislative that will have an impact particularly on cross-border commerce:

HB 24 (Border overweight cargo zone bill): This bill passed both houses and is sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for her signature. Because this bill was endorsed by the governor during the session, it is highly likely that she will sign this. After signature, this bill will become law on July 1st.

This bill, sponsored by Mary Helen Garcia in the House of Representatives and supported by Senator Mary Kay Papen in the Senate, creates a six-mile zone around the Santa Teresa and Columbus Ports of Entry. It allows for reducible loads above the maximum 80,000 lbs, but not exceeding 96,000 lbs (a 15% increase in weight). There will be a $250 annual permit per truck/unit for haulers of irreducible loads within the zone.

The creation of these overweight zones will help create a new economic development opportunity by attracting importers of products from Mexico, such as tile and cement, which can bring their loads into warehouses located within the zone. The loads can then be broken down and distributed from these warehouses throughout the rest of the U.S. It is estimated that up to 100 jobs within the zones could be created within the first year of their establishment.

This bill was supported by the New Mexico Border Authority, the New Mexico Department of Transportation, and the Motor Transportation Department.

HB 322 (Revolving border infrastructure fund): This bill, which was sponsored by Representative Mary Helen Garcia, passed both houses and is sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for her signature. Because this bill was endorsed by the governor during the session, it is highly likely that she will sign this. After signature, this bill will become law on July 1st.

HB 322 creates a permanent Border Infrastructure Fund, to be managed by the New Mexico Border Authority, to plan, design, and construct border infrastructure. Border infrastructure needs are intimately tied to manufacturing, international logistics, and foreign trade patterns, which are often complex and require a comprehensive approach to be properly addressed. The creation of a permanent fund would allow the New Mexico Border Authority to finance multi-year, all-inclusive, border infrastructure plans.

Currently, border infrastructure development is conducted by reacting to specific crises with isolated projects; funding is usually contingent to availability and subject to politics involved in obtaining executive or legislative capital outlay allocations. A predictable funding source allows for proactive and methodical border planning and development, taking into account both present and future needs.

HB 523/SB 179 (diesel tax abatement bill – these were companion bills in the House and Senate): Both of these bills passed both houses and are sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for her signature. The House bill was sponsored by Representative Jane Powdrell-Culbert and the Senate bill was sponsored by Senator Cynthia Nava. The governor will have the option of signing either bill, which is critical for Union Pacific Railroad (UPR) to proceed with its publicly announced project to establish a diesel refueling station and swamp yards (intermodal yards) in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Union Pacific Railroad’s investment in its Santa Teresa project will exceed $400 million and have an overall economic impact of $500 million for the New Mexico economy. The construction of these facilities will create 3,000 jobs during the construction phase from 2011 to 2015, and will eventually be headquarters for more than 600 permanent jobs.

The UPR project was the first major economic development project announced by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Secretary Jon Barela a week after the new administration took office.

SB 373 (Capital Outlay Reauthorization): This bill was sponsored by Senator Carlos Cisneros and most likely will be signed by Governor Martinez. The $800,000 that had long ago been appropriated to complete the planned hazmat station at the Santa Teresa Airport reverted, due to the slowness in the advancement of this project. SB 373 reauthorized the $800,000 so that the facility can now be completed. An additional $250,000 was reauthorized for the Santa Teresa Safety Inspection Station.

Photo courtesy of IBA

Santa Teresa, New Mexico – Products USA, LLC, a packager of foods and producer of Mexican-style salsas, has established a salsa production plant in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. This food producer currently has operations in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua. Its new plant in Santa Teresa will supply salsa to retailers in the western and southwestern United States. The company plans to initially hire six employees for the first phase of its operation.

According to Products USA, LLC CEO Cesar Moran, “We chose Santa Teresa as the location for our plant, due to its convenient location close to the Mexican border. This allows us quick access in and out of Mexico, as well as superior logistics to move our product to our U.S. target market. We were also impressed with the level of business support we received to establish operations in our new plant.” Assisting in recruiting the new company to Santa Teresa were the New Mexico Partnership and the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance.

The company has leased production space in the Verde Logistics Park, north of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, and expects to begin operations within the next 60 days.

Santa Teresa, New Mexico – JBC International, LLC, a regional plastics recycling company, has established operations in Chaparral, New Mexico. This five-year-old company currently has recycling operations in Juarez, Mexico. Its new plant in Chaparral will collect plastic products and recycle them into usable production inputs for industrial applications. The company plans to hire approximately 12 employees for the Chaparral plant.

According to JBC International CEO Carlos Gonzalez, “Our new Chaparral location is conveniently located next to the industrial bases in El Paso, Juarez, and southern New Mexico. We were impressed with all of the support we received from the New Mexico Economic Development Partnership, the Otero County Economic Development Council, and the Western New Mexico Small Business Development Center. These entities were all extremely helpful in providing business environment, workforce, and economic development incentive information.”

The company has purchased the land and constructed a building for its operations in the Otero County side of Chaparral. It expects to begin operations by early 2011.

JBC International is a plastics recycling company that recycles over 12,000 lbs of plastic daily. Other scrap materials the company recycles include pallet, cardboard, and metal. The company purchases the material, processes it for industrial applications, and sells it to buyers in the region

By Gabriel Vasquez

The Santa Teresa Port of Entry could be a model for effectual cross-border transportation and economic development, if only the right pieces fall into place, said Francisco Uranga, Foxconn vice president and chief business operations officer for Latin America.

Francisco Uranga

Uranga, speaking during an economic forum held by the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance Friday, Oct. 8, urged local business leaders to rally local, regional and state legislators to focus their economic development efforts on improving infrastructure in Santa Teresa that has “tremendous potential” for bi-national development. “There are tremendous opportunities here to create a transportation metroplex that serves the purposes of the industrial companies on both sides of the border,” Uranga said. “People must realize the potential for the entire region, because as it is now, we’re being extremely inefficient with our transportation in this area.”

Uranga was instrumental in bringing the 500-acre Foxconn manufacturing facility to San Jeronimo, Mexico, which employs about 6,000 people and manufactures roughly 13,000 computers, laptops and servers each day. Foxconn is a Taiwanese industrial giant, building the majority of electronic components for popular companies such as Apple, Nokia, Motorola, HP and others. Foxconn has 1.1 million employees worldwide and is growing at an astounding rate, increasing profits by 67 percent in 2009.

When the San Jeronimo Foxconn facility was built in 2009, it was anticipated that the facility would bring many supply and logistics companies to the U.S. side of the border, which would significantly increase traffic through the Santa Teresa crossing and prompt economic development on both sides of the border.

That progress has been slow in coming, however, Uranga said, for various reasons. The approval and subsequent extension of the Juarez free trade zone will not go into effect until next year, Uranga said. The promised rail station, train-to-truck facility and refueling station proposed years ago by Union Pacific Railroad has also yet to materialize, and renovations are needed to the Santa Teresa Airport to accommodate large passenger and cargo jets, such as DC-10 aircraft, to satisfy the needs of logistics companies.

Uranga said the Santa Teresa-San Jeronimo border corridor is ideal for new maquilas and other enterprises because of its close proximity to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, which would allow American investors, business and operations managers to cross into Mexico without fear of encountering the violence that has so badly plagued Ciudad Juarez.

“Picture an operation along the fence of the U.S. line, with secure corridors going through both U.S. and Mexican customs, where goods are coming through with dedicated lanes for transportation,” he said “This is why the importance of the (Foxconn) project is being talked about. We’re thinking about a new railway, a new (Santa Teresa Airport) runway and the expansion of the (Santa Teresa) crossing.”

In August, Gov.Bill Richardson announced that the New Mexico Border Authority signed a $1.23 million grant agreement with the Economic Development Administration, which will be utilized to evaluate the expansion of commercial rail services along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agreement has the full support of Richardson and U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

“Expanding commercial rail service along the border is fundamental to increasing trade between the United States and Mexico and will be a huge boost to the economy of southern New Mexico,” Richardson said. “I am pleased that this grant will allow us to continue our work on this important project.”

Zoe Richmond, director of public affairs for Union Pacific, said the railway extension project proposed by UP isn’t yet off the table, but she didn’t give a timetable for future investment in the area.  “We stalled the project,” she said. “We did that obviously because of the economy. We are not able at this time to advance as we originally thought.”

The proposed $150 million Santa Teresa UP transfer station would clear congestion on the El Paso and Juarez railway, Uranga said. The transfer station would create more than 280 jobs and be able to process up to 100,000 containers per year.

Plans for improvements to the Santa Teresa Airport, however, are materializing. In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Santa Teresa will receive $2.2 million in funding for runway extensions.

“We’re taking baby steps to neutralize any major disadvantages we may have,” said Jerry Pacheco, director of the International Business Accelerator, a New Mexico nonprofit that specializes in cross-border economic development. Uranga said without state and federal financial support, infrastructure improvements and cross-border communication and cooperation, development on the Santa Teresa corridor will continue to lag.

“If you build it, they will come,” Uranga said. “If these things are in place, by having these projects complete and expanding the (Santa Teresa) airport, when you can have a container yard on the Mexican side, you can reroute the train lines from the center of Juarez to Santa Teresa.”

Ultimately, if the border transportation and logistics corridor that Uranga envisions becomes reality, he sees the “inefficient” trucking dominated transportation system currently in place across the border as a thing of the past. No longer will hundreds of trailers from the west and inner-city of Juarez logjam El Paso’s three border crossings every day, but instead a sophisticated truck-to-train system, with the help of logistics and transportation companies on each side of the border, will replace the current system, with many companies using the Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

“This is great potential that we’re sitting on,” Uranga said. “We bought into the idea, my chairman trusted me in setting up the (Foxconn) facility here, and once the free trade zone is approved in the first quarter of next year, we’ll start moving.

“But we need private sector people to continue to work with us and set up next to us. We need the U.S. side, the Mexico side, the New Mexico side and the Juarez and El Paso side working together on this. If we continue competing and fighting among each other, it won’t work. We need to maximize our potential.”

At Foxconn, Uranga is responsible for government relations at all levels as well as regulations, incentives, tax and duties, legal customers, immigration and land and construction issues in Latin America. He serves on the Board of Directors of Superior Industries International Inc., one of the largest wheel-makers in the world. From 1998 to 2004, he served as secretary of industrial development for the State of Chihuahua.

The MVEDA Board of Directors and Staff want to give special thanks to our key note speakers:

• Francisco Urango, Corporate Vice President and Chief Business Operations Officer for Latin America,for Foxconn.   Foxconn is the largest contract manufacturing company in the world with a significant manufacturing presence in San Jeronimo, next to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry,

• Carissa Bryce Christensen, founder and Managing Partner of The Tauri Group, an analytic and engineering firm based in Alexandria, VA, which provides expertise on the economic, market, technology and policy issues associated with commercial spaceflight, and

• Dr. Lowell Catlett, Regent’s Professor/Dean and Chief Administrative Officer at NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.  Dr. Catlett is also a national speaker and futurist on trends associated with technologies and their implications on the way we live and work.

Special thanks also go out to our expert panelists that included:

• Juan Massey, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Verde Realty,

• Jerry Pacheco, Executive Director of the International Business Accelerator,

• Andrew Moralez, Executive Director of the New Mexico Border Authority,

• Zoe Gisela Richmond, Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific,

• Robert X. Martinez, VP of Construction Management for Gerald Martin,

• Keith Beck, VP and General Manager of the Jacob’s Technology Test and Evaluation Center,

• Wayne Savage, Program Manager of Progressive Construction Management, and

• Mark Lautman, Principal of Lautman Economic Architecture Partners, LLC.

For those of you who could not attend, we will be placing parts of the presentations on our website in the coming weeks.

Q1 2010-’11 Activity

MVEDA entered the 2010-’11 Fiscal Year with twelve, high-priority projects, consisting of approximately 1,200 jobs with a realistic chance of closing in the current fiscal year.   Approximately 1/3 of those jobs (as illustrated in the blue on the chart below), consisting of primarily manufacturing and renewable energy companies, show a very strong chance of closing.  What this means to MVEDA’s internal operations is that we have turned much of our attention this past quarter towards the project management needs of our clients.

Additionally, MVEDA continues its aggressive marketing campaign and year to date we have developed 22 new leads consisting of approximately 925 employees and 785,000sf of required space.   In comparison to last year, total new leads are slightly down and we see a shift in industry specific leads especially within food processing which currently represents 25% of all our new 2010-’11 leads as compared to only 3% of total leads for the same period last fiscal year.

Manufacturing/logistics and aerospace also showed some slight growth as a percentage of total leads while renewable energy leads dropped to 21% of total leads YTD 2010-’11 compared with 32% for the same period last fiscal year.  Additionally, whereas a large portion of our renewable energy leads last year were involved in manufacturing, we see a much larger portion of this year’s renewable energy leads involved in renewable energy generation.

With respect to employment trends in the region versus the rest of the United States, the Las Cruces market has fared very well.  In a September 2010 report by Garner Economics LLC, which measured job growth trends amongst 158 U.S. metros, Las Cruces was recognized along with 15 other metros as setting new record employment numbers.  Garner Economics’ report quoted:

“The July 2010 employment numbers also show that sixteen metros have set new records; surpassing July peak employment totals from the previous five years (see map and table).”

As illustrated in the map and table provided as part of the Garner Economics report, Las Cruces NM was ranked 8th amongst these 16 cities in terms of the percentage increase in jobs with over 1,900 new jobs added over July 2009.

In the upcoming months, MVEDA will continue to be active in several events.   Later in October, MVEDA is sponsor to ISPCS as well as to the VC Speed Dating Event put on by the Arrowhead Center.   We will also be attending the BizTech 2010 Expo in El Paso.

Finally, if you were not already aware, the MVEDA staff is now settled into our new offices in the First Community Bank Building in downtown Las Cruces.  Our formal address is: 1st Community Bank Tower, 277 E. Amador, Suite 304, Las Cruces, NM  88001.  We hope you can all stop by and visit us in the very near future.

The El Paso Community College’s Contract Opportunities Center and the El Paso Small Business Consortium are proud to announce the 7th Annual Procurement and Contracting Symposium to be held on April 27, 2010 at the El Paso Community College’s Administrative Services Center, 9050 Viscount, El Paso, Texas. This event has historically been supported by agencies of federal, state and local governments and their Prime Contractors, making this Symposium a premier event in the West Texas and Southern New Mexico region.

Suppliers of goods and services are ready to stand up with agencies of federal, state and local governments as they strive to meet the challenges of supporting the war fighter. Our goal is very simple- to provide a venue and an opportunity for purchasers, contractors and suppliers to come together and “Reach out” to one another.

In planning this event the objectives are:

• To provide a venue where federal, state and local governmental agencies and their Prime Contractors have the opportunity to extend their outreach into a region rich with qualified vendors willing to help them meet their acquisition goals;
• To provide an opportunity for regional suppliers and service providers to begin developing relationships with Installation and agency contracting representatives;
• To provide training opportunities for vendors currently engaged in government contracting and to provide information to potential contractors and the local business community.

There are several ways that you can participate. Be a Sponsor, be a presenter, a member of a panel, participate in one-on-one sessions with interested vendors (Government agencies and Prime Contractors only), have a booth in the exhibit area, network or conduct a workshop.

For more information call (915) 831-7749.

On November 11 through 13, 2009, the International Business Accelerator (IBA) and the Office of Mexican Affairs & Trade (OMA) organized an outbound trade mission to Juarez, Mexico. The purpose of the trade mission was to promote New Mexico exports by introducing qualified industrial suppliers to industrial buyers from the maquiladora industry, located in Juarez.

The IBA, OMA, the City of Juarez Economic Development Association, and the State of Chihuahua Industrial Development Department worked together to match the participating New Mexican suppliers’ outputs with the demand interests of the participating maquiladora purchasing managers.

The New Mexico companies that participated in this event included:

• Omega Trucking
• Bralco Metals
• Sun Automation
• Monarch Litho
• Georgia Pacific
• Southwest Dowel & Wood Products, LLC
• Albuquerque Printing

These companies had the opportunity to meet with several maquiladora buyers during a series of pre-qualified interviews arranged by the organizers. Each interview had duration of up to thirty minutes. The companies that participated from the Juarez maquiladora purchasing industrial sector included: Crayola, Bosch, ADC, Delphi, Tyco, Strattec- Security, Larco, Matrix Wire, Bell Manufacturing, Radial, Toro, Labinal, Tatung, Lexmark, Del Real, Cardinal Health, Covidien, and Inventec.

The New Mexico suppliers are currently working on production quotes and are conducting follow-up with these companies.